CEO of business endorse Salesforce Chatter iPad App

Salesforce says it created Chatter for iPad to take advantage of the iPad's unique capabilities while keeping users connected to the people and the records that matter most, whether they are working in the office or on the road. "The biggest thing I see in Chatter is it clearly starts driving down the volume of e-mail traffic," says Enrique, president and CEO of security software  maker Symantec. "It's information  being sent to people who need it."
"Wherever I am," Salem elaborates, "I can now very effectively communicate with the 18,000 people at our company. I would tell you, the biggest game-changer over the next five years in business productivity will be how companies use social media and we've chosen to use Chatter."
Driving Innovation
Chatter for iPad lets users view updates about the people, groups, and records they follow. It also lets users view documents and links shared by others, and find and follow people in their organization. Chatter sets the stage for collaboration . The free mobile  app lets users find and join groups within an organization, view coworker profiles, e-mail them directly, and more.
Essentially, Chatter for iPad leverages the social features made popular by Facebook and Twitter -- such as profiles, status updates, and real-time feeds. Salesforce.com characterizes Chatter as a Cloud 2.0 app. Cloud 2 came onto the scene with consumer social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter that people use every day to connect and collaborate with friends and family.
Lord Rothemore, chairman of publishing house DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust), credits Chatter with bringing in more innovative ideas from employees in the last three months than he had seen the previous 12 years. He said he sees his company embracing tools like Chatter and using them to drive their top line and relationships with customers and staff.
"Companies that don't use social collaboration internally will find it harder to recruit talent and will lose significant competitive advantage," Rothemore said.
Cutting-Edge Companies
Any Salesforce user can invite any colleague -- even those who aren't Salesforce users -- to collaborate with Chatter. The goal is to create a network  effect, as the pool of Chatter users widens and deepens across a company. Salesforce.com pointed to the security of Chatter Free, noting that because it's built on the Force.com platform, enterprises are assured employees only see what they are authorized to see.
Bob Beauchamp, Chairman and CEO of business-app maker BMC Software, remembers the first time Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff talked to him about Chatter. Intuitively, he thought it was a great idea.
"It's obvious that this is a change that's going to last forever. This way of doing business just makes sense," Beauchamp said. "I want BMC to be a company where the employees feel like they are working for a cutting-edge company that's setting the pace -- not a follower but a leader."
"The biggest difference between CRM on premises and CRM in the cloud comes down to where the server resides. On premises CRM means that the server is in your office," Smith wrote in a blog post on CRM Software Blog.
"And if you choose CRM in the cloud? Well, the server could be almost anywhere, and I can't tell you where 'anywhere' is because that depends on your cloud provider. But I can tell where 'anywhere' is NOT. It's NOT hanging over your head in a mass of white cotton outlined against a blue sky."

Consumer satisfaction continues to increase for ecommerce companies

The customer satisfaction score of the embattled video rental company fell 15% in the last year, says the American Customer Satisfaction Index annual eCommerce report released today. It's one of the largest drops in the indexs history.

The index, founded at the University of Michigan but now run as a privately held company, measures customer evaluations of products and services for 250 companies in 47 industries in the U.S., based on a 100-point scale. Customer satisfaction with e-commerce Web sites inched up 1% to 80.

Consumer expectation continues to increase for ecommerce companies, says Larry Freed, author of the report and CEO of consulting firm ForeSee. However, When you walk into a retail store, you don't expect to get better service, he says.

Total e-commerce sales rose 16% to $194.3 billion in 2011, say data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Amazon remains the top online retailer in customer service, though its overall score dropped slightly. The company invests heavily in subsidizing the cost of shipping and new technology, such as its e-readers, to keep consumer prices low. "It's the gold standard for e-commerce in many different ways," says Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Netflix's score reflects the turbulent changes it introduced last year by raising prices and announcing a plan, which it eventually dropped, to split its DVD and streaming rental services. Netflix shot themselves in the foot, Mulpuru says.

Newegg, an online retailer that specializes in electronics, registered the fastest rate of growth in satisfaction scores.

Online travel agencies' average score, at 78, was slightly lower than retailers. But the sluggish economy has unleashed a flood of deals and new Web features to attract more customers, says Douglas Quinby of PhoCusWright, a travel technology research firm.

Travelocity tops the category, replacing last year's leader, Expedia. Priceline, which has moved beyond its auction model to traditional travel agency businesses, registered the biggest increase in customer satisfaction among travel companies.

Customer satisfaction with online brokerages fell 3% to 76. Fidelity, Charles Schwab and E-Trade tied for the lead in the sector.